News

Jets send maydays over London

The latest storms forced 30 London flights to divert to other airports (Andy Rain)

FIVE aircraft unable to land at Heathrow and Gatwick were forced to declare
emergencies, some perilously close to running out of fuel, in the latest
storm to batter Britain.

Passengers on one flight circling London screamed as it was tossed around like
a “paper plane” by 60mph winds at the height of Friday night’s storm.

Aircraft unable to land at airports in the southeast were diverted to
Manchester, where they were met by emergency crews. Airline sources say four
diverted jets made “mayday” distress calls, the most serious state of
emergency. Three believed they were running out of reserve fuel and one, an
American Airlines jet, had a problem with its rudder.

A BA flight from Moscow to Heathrow with 143 passengers on board declared a
lower level emergency. Its pilot aborted one landing as it was hit by a
strong gust of wind only 30ft from the runway.